Broken Nails and Inside Jokes
by dropout-ninja
Summary: They went from enemies to embarrassed allies to penpals and phone calls. Dipper must have lost his mind.


_Gravity Falls and its characters do not belong to me. All rights go to their respective owners._

_A gift to a friend who wanted more Dipcifica in the world._

* * *

It was ironically similar to all the girls from his Grunkle's 'road trip'. Well, not completely. There was less banter from him. And the jerk act was something she did far more than he even bothered to try anymore. Pacifica Northwest was a bit of a natural at it.

But even if Dipper hadn't been trying any of Stan's 'tricks' to get attention, the results were the same.

Not only did he have the whole first season of Ghost Harassers, but an email inked on the crook of his arm. It washed out in the first shower (which, since he lived with Mabel, happened uselessly soon) but at that point Dipper had already written it down in one of his many notebooks.

"Don't you have a phone?" he'd asked her and Pacifica had looked offended.

Of course she did. Seriously, who did he think she was? She'd had one since gradeschool.

It was just..."monitored", that's all.

Right. Her parents were creepers and all.

They started messaging soon after he and his sister had made it back to Piedmont. The first email came from Dipper, although he had no way of knowing Pacifica had started a dozen drafts only to click delete rather than send. Northwest's were too prideful to look desperate and being too quick to reach out just had to be desperation, didn't it?

Well, there was nothing that said she couldn't send messages back after he'd made the first move. So they chatted. High school started for the Pines twins. Because of Dipper, they had moved straight past eighth grade and into ninth. Almost surprisingly, since he still considered her a bit of a 'bleached blonde valley girl stereotype', Pacifica had started too.

From what she wrote, the girl hated it. Less because of the school bit and more because of having to deal with Gravity Fall's high school. Hah, yeah. Wendy complained about the place all the time.

"_Favorite class?_" Dipper had asked during a phone call.

"_Ugh, please, like any of them are any good,_" she groaned back. The landline's cord was wrapped around her hand. That old thing wasn't being checked by her parents to make sure all the pictures were 'up to code' to their 'reputation', at least. In fact, they detested the house phone. It just wasn't anywhere near their antiques they'd had at the mansion. Before the mansion got bought by a hillbilly. Eh, it still brought a sour taste to her mouth to think about it all. "..._biology_."

Now _that_ was something Dipper could get behind.

"_Really_?" he sat up on the bed.

Apparently so. Well, he liked any sort of science. And all the fantastical creatures of the Fall's had fascinating biology. That, it seemed, was not quite why Pacifica liked it.

"_I just like ponies. Besides, vets and doctors are paid, like, really well. I'd like to live somewhere without having to rub shoulders with the commoners._"

His eye roll went unseen over the phone call.

"_Sure. Second favorite?_" he changed subjects away fast.

"_History, I guess. It's not totally boring_."

Or rather, it was something that made her think. Dipper opened his emails one evening to find she had linked him with a couple bogus textbook pages screenshotted and compared to unofficial papers ranging from library books to dirty, crinkled conspiracy articles.

After finding out about the lie her old family fortune was based on, Pacifica had been a bit..._shook_. Of course, it wasn't like the cover up got revealed to the public or anything. Really, it didn't change the Northwest life at all.

But it did affect her, even if her parents couldn't care less.

That ghost had affected her too.

So now she did a little digging when her textbooks presented a lie?

...cool. He told her as much.

They moved to his schooling.

It was hard to find any favorites when it came to his studies. Math was full of delightful puzzles, biology was fascinating and fun (even Mabel, who liked to pretend to be an idiot but it was by all [most] means an act, could be seen cutting into frogs with gusto. But not...[Dipper gave out a shudder at the memory of when the two of them had been given it] not the baby pig), geography made him imagine about all the other 'weirdness hotspots' of the world...

"_You're a dork_," Pacifa just said after he finished his longwinded 'answer' to a simple question.

* * *

When Thanksgiving rolled around, the Pines twins had begged and pleaded and convinced their parents to let them visit Gravity Falls once more. It was a long weekend but a short trip, especially compared to their whole summer. Regardless, they'd make the most of seeing everyone up here again.

On their way into the Mystery Shack that wednesday, Mabel's stream of talking changed to a stream of questions. Her gaze had landed at the girl sitting behind the cashier and looking her nails over with an air of superiority to all the shoppers.

"Wai-wha-_Pacifica_?!"

Oh, right. Looked like Dipper forgot to mention that. She'd told him a few months ago during her big job search. The Northwest's still had their family fortune but it was no longer growing and wouldn't remain stagnant for long. Not unless new money was put into it.

Besides, as "awful" as having to work was, Pacifica wasn't good at hiding that it made her happier to be away from the family for a few hours. Sure, she loved her parents. But that didn't mean she wanted to be with them 24-7.

Dipper had read and listened to her pre-job hunt woes, where she whined about having to work at all. And then the job hunt itself (Arcade? Too unsophisticated. The diner? Too plebian. The mall? Too embarrassing) which yeilded up her reasons for why every possible job in town was out of the question.

But the shack, out away from the main part of the town where she used to be a queen, was an 'alright' option. It paid money. Not much, since Soos was trying to be a Mr. Mystery like Stan and it wasn't a well hidden secret that Stan did not like to part with his dollars. Plus, there was a lot of lounging around doing nothing involved and that was a job benefit.

And it gave them both something to chat about while he was in California. The latest attractions, the newest things to happen around the shack, the day his Grunkle's came back for a break; Dipper liked hearing about his favorite place in this dimension. And, well, he liked hearing from her too.

"Hey losers," she waved without looking up from her book. Aloof to a T, but that was what they expected from her. It reminded Dipper of how she'd complained over 'breaking a nail' wrapping their birthday presents; and yet opening them showed that the gifts themselves, inside jokes notwithstanding, were thoughtful even if her outward attitude was not.

The only work day of the week left was that same Wednesday. Thanksgiving was off and Dipper was going to be busy with his family the weekend.

They lounged around the front desk, made fun of the customers with Pacifica, and looked at her current reading material (some book on ponies) like it was a joke (which, unfortunately, it was not).

He asked if she wanted to get away from the next wave of mindless customers for a while. She shrugged and said 'why not'.

There was just the spot nearby that was perfect for ditching work. Dipper pulled the hatch aside and crawled up on the flat bit of rooftop.

"Hey, this is..." Pacifica poked her head up next and pulled herself up next to him. "...kinda cool."

"Right?" Dipper looked over the view of the parking lot with a touch of nostalgia. "I used to come up here all the time. A-" there was only the slightest hesitation "-friend showed it to me."

Rain drizzled down. There wasn't much talking.

It was a mostly comfortable silence.

* * *

Christmas break was only a week away and he and Mabel had already made plans to go up north again. This meant there really wasn't a need to mail presents. Not when Dipper would be seeing Pacifica in person soon enough.

They did it anyways.

There was something exciting about waiting until the truck came by with the box from Gravity Falls.

He was really looking forward to seeing his Grunkle's again. And all the old gang; Soos, Wendy, her friends who had come to like Dipper over the summer, Mabel's crazy friends, Melody, Lazy Susan, the familiar catchphrase of the mayor, those two useless cops, everyone. All the townsfolk. Well, maybe excluding the Gleeful's.

Regardless, it was his family he especially looked forward to seeing.

But this was a touch of Gravity Falls right here. Something sent straight from his favorite town from someone who, after going from vengeful-rivals-to-ghosts-hunters, he looked forward to seeing too.

Inside the cardboard box was another box. The wrapping on it was far from perfect, which likely meant Pacifica had done it herself instead of getting someone else to do it. That could be a sign of thoughtfulness. Or it could be a result of only having one servant left. Dipper thought it was the former.

She'd given him even more Ghost Harassers and a good camera. That...had to be expensive. But ah! the perks of being wealthy. It wasn't like the little $5 disposable cameras he'd bought for the gobblewonker incident. This was a good camera. Meant to record high quality videos.

Well, he had told Ford that his dream was to catch the supernatural on film and make a series about it. And he'd told a few more people than just his great uncle about that dream.

This was thoughtful of her.

Beneath it all, Pacifica was a kid like him. Or a teen, he supposed.

She wasn't untouchable. He'd learned that during the time he'd tried to deal with the Northwest Manor's ghost. Sure, Dipper still thought Mabel had been way too easily forgiving about everything. He still thought they should've charged her for the taco and the ride and every other favor they paid her and her family.

Up to Weirdmaggedon, at least. After that, favors were favors and friends were friends.

Besides, despite her attempts to hide it with familiar iciness, Dipper could still see the way she blushed when they'd do that awkwardly brief hug.

Almost a shame he hadn't realized he did the same.

* * *

_AN- Thank you for your time! If you noticed any grammar/spelling errors, please point them out so I can correct them :)_


End file.
